Category Archives: Loans

Whether you’re actively searching for a new place to call home or simply entertaining the idea of moving to a new location, you more than likely have a dream home in mind. However, if your dreams are out of line with your budget, getting into that dream home may seem next to impossible. But for those willing to do a little work, your dream home can be well within reach, thanks in large part to an FHA 203k loan.

Designed for people who want to buy a home that needs renovations or major upgrades, the FHA 203k loan program allows one to borrow the purchase price of the home, plus receive money for renovations, all with the convenience of a single loan and closing.

While most mortgage financing plans provide only permanent financing where the lender will only close on the loan and release the mortgage if the condition and value of the property provide adequate loan security, if you’re talking about purchasing a home as-is, the money probably won’t be coming to you until the improvements are made. But that’s not the case with a 203k loan.

FHA 203k loans are designated for houses that are damaged or sorely in need of rehabilitation. The loan covers not only the cost of the property, but also the cost of necessary home repairs. It’s especially beneficial to those who cannot afford a finished home and are willing to take on a fixer-upper.

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the 203k loan program is an excellent means for lenders to demonstrate their commitment to lending in lower-income communities and to help meet their responsibilities under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA).

There are two types of FHA 203k loans: regular and streamlined. Regular 203k loans are for homes that need structural repairs, and streamlined loans are for those that need non-structural repairs.

The extent of the rehabilitation may range from relatively minor work (starting at $5,000) to major reconstruction on the home’s structure. Categories for work allowed include modernization and improvements to the home’s function, elimination of health and safety hazards, adding or replacing roofing, gutters, and downspouts, enhancing accessibility for a disabled person, making energy conservation improvements and changes that improve appearance and eliminate obsolescence.

Repairs can include numerous items, such as plumbing, roofing, room additions, providing disability access, adding new siding, site grading or even kitchen remodeling.

When a 203k loan closes, a repair escrow account is set up and renovation can begin. Repairs must start within 30 days of closing and be completed within six months.

To be eligible for the FHA 203k mortgage program, homes must be owner-occupied, must be only 1-4 units and must be at least one year old. New homes are not considered.

For more information about FHA 203k loans, contact us at (610) 256-2780. Thanks for reading!

We are now officially in the peak spring home buying-season. I was asked the other day for advice on what should be at the top of the list for homeowners after they move into their new home.

That was an easy question to answer. My No. 1 piece of advice for recent homebuyers is to switch from the traditional monthly mortgage payments to either weekly or bi-weekly payments. Why? Because it’s the least painful, simplest way I know to shave approximately four years off the life of a traditional 30-year fixed rate mortgage. Here’s what you need to do. First, contact your mortgage lender to set up automatic withdrawals from your bank account for your mortgage payments. While you could theoretically achieve the same result by mailing in your payments, the vast majority of people won’t have the discipline to stick to this alternate payment schedule if it’s not set up as an automatic withdrawal.

Next, ask your lender to establish a payment every two weeks. Take your monthly mortgage payment and divide it by two to come up with your payment amount. For example, if your mortgage payment is $1,000 a month, your payment should be $500 every two weeks. You could also establish weekly payments instead, which would be $250 a week instead of a $1,000 monthly payment. This simple change in your payment schedule will cut approximately four years off of a traditional 30-year fixed rate mortgage. Check with your mortgage lender for an exact calculation of the reduction in years based on your individual circumstances.

Sounds painless and too good to be true, doesn’t it? Here’s how it works. If you make payments every two weeks, you’re making 26 payments a year. Since each payment is half of your normal monthly payment, take the 26 payments and divide by two to arrive at the monthly payments you are making each year. Twenty-six divided by two results in 13 monthly payments that you’ve made each year instead of the 12 monthly payments that you would normally make under a traditional payment schedule. The same mathematical result occurs if you establish a weekly payment schedule at one-fourth the amount of your normal monthly mortgage payment.

So, you end up paying an extra monthly payment on your mortgage each year, which has an impact on the compounding effect of the interest on your mortgage. Most homeowners would be hard-pressed to come up with an additional mortgage payment at the end of each year, so this is a great way to accomplish some forced savings in a manner that most people don’t even feel.
And this is not just for new homebuyers. Many existing homeowners are asking themselves, “Should I refinance?” If you decide to refinance your mortgage to today’s low interest rates, make sure to consider this option when you set up your new mortgage.

Finally, consider this scenario: You might have a child in college during those last four years of your mortgage. The absence of your mortgage payments might be the solution to paying tuition for those four years of college.

Did you know that mortgage rates are at the lowest point ever? I know many of my clients who have taken advantage of the Obama loan remodification program called “HARP” and obtained mortgage rates in and around 3.35%.

It’s quick, streamlined, inexpensive and easy. Sure there are some restrictions but they are reasonable (never miss a mortgage payment) and you can be “under-water” (owe more than your home is worth) and still qualify.

What is HARP? The Obama administration in 2009 rolled out HARP to refinance borrowers whose loans were backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and who were current on their payments. The idea was simple: If you were making your payments on time but didn’t have enough equity to refinance, you would be able to lower your rate without having to pay down your mortgage balance or take out mortgage insurance.

Initially, the program was limited to borrowers who owed between 80% and 105% the value of their homes. In mid 2009, the program was opened to borrowers who owed up to 125% the value of their homes.

But a series of unforeseen “frictions” have led fewer borrowers to take up on the offer of lower rates. Fewer than 900,000 homeowners have refinanced under HARP over the past 2½ years, and just 72,000 of those borrowers have loan-to-value ratios between 105% and 125%.

How is HARP being expanded? Borrowers will soon be able to refinance no matter how far underwater they are. This should have a big impact in certain parts of Nevada, Arizona, and Florida where many borrowers owe more than 125% of the value of their homes. In Nevada, for example, two thirds of all loans backed by Fannie Mae are underwater, and half of all loans are above the 125% loan-to-value cut-off.

Will I be able to refinance through HARP if I’ve already used the program once? No. The program will continue to be limited to loans that were delivered to Fannie and Freddie before June 2009, which means that anyone who has already refinanced under HARP won’t be able to refinance again.

What other changes are being made to improve HARP? One of the most important changes addresses the risk that banks will have to “buy back” defaulted mortgages from Fannie and Freddie if the loans are discovered to run afoul of underwriting rules. This has prompted banks to scrutinize appraisals and require extensive documentation of borrowers’ incomes on loans for which they don’t already collect payments, even if Fannie and Freddie already guarantee those loans. As a result, some borrowers can only qualify for HARP by going to their current mortgage servicer, rather than shopping around for the best rate. Some lenders have been just “cherry picking the easiest loans,” says Keane Ng, a mortgage broker in Kirkland, Wash.

Under changes to be announced on Monday, banks will be largely shielded from the “buy back” risk on HARP mortgages, and they’ll only have to verify that borrowers meet a more tailored set of eligibility rules: that they’ve made their last six payments and have no more than one missed payment in the last year and that they have a job or another source of regular income. Those changes are a pre-requisite for “any game-changing refinance activity,” says Mahesh Swaminathan, senior mortgage strategist at Credit Suisse.